ROME, 14 DEC 1999 (ZENIT)
With the Great Jubilee only days away, discussions
are heating up about when the Third Millennium actually begins. While it
is certain that Jubilee celebrations will start with the opening of the
Holy Door on December 24 and end with its closing on January 6, 2000, it
is less clear whether this is really the 2000th anniversary of
Christ's birth.

When Dionysius Exiguus computed the date of Christ's
birth in the Middle Ages, he named the year of the Nativity 1 A.D., and
stated that Jesus' birthdate was December 25 of that year. The year
immediately before this was the year 1 B.C. Whether from mathematical
ignorance or design, he did not include a year zero.

This complicates the calculation of the dates of the
Jubilee. Christmas of the year 2 A.D. was the 1st anniversary
of Christ's birth, according to Dionysius' calculations; similarly, the
second anniversary of that birth fell in the year 3 A.D. Taking this
forward a few centuries, we find that the 2000th anniversary of
Christ's birth should fall on December 25, 2001.

To complicate matters further, it seems that
Dionysius' made an error in his calculations. Herod the Great, who the
Bible says was alive at the time of Christ's birth, died in the year 4
B.C., based on the reports of Josephus. According to the Gospel of
Matthew, when Herod was unable to trick the astrologers into leading him
to the Child, he ordered the slaughter of all the male babies in
Bethlehem. Since Herod's command (which is not attested outside the
Gospels, but is consistent with his historical character) was to kill all
babies under age 2, this event occurred no more than 2 years after
Christ's birth. If we assume that this happened near the end of Herod's
life (which seems likely), this puts Christ's birth in the year 5 or 6
B.C.

In that case, the 2000th anniversary of
Christ's birth has already gone by, having been in 1993 or 1994. Naturally
at the distance of years, it is practically impossibile to say with
certainty what year Christ was actually born, though sometime between 7
B.C. and 1 B.C. seems all but certain.

If this is the case, why is the Church celebrating
the year 2000 with such solemnity? The answer is simple: because the world
is celebrating this date. In his Apostolic Letter "Tertio Millennio
Adveniente," the Holy Father wrote, "In view of this, the two
thousand years which have passed since the Birth of Christ (prescinding
from the question of its precise chronology) represent an extraordinarily
great Jubilee, not only for Christians but indirectly for the whole of
humanity, given the prominent role played by Christianity during these two
millennia. It is significant that the calculation of the passing years
begins almost everywhere with the year of Christ's coming into the world,
which is thus the centre of the calendar most widely used today. Is this
not another sign of the unparalleled effect of the Birth of Jesus of
Nazareth on the history of mankind?"

For the Pope, the year 2000 is a sign of the
centrality of Christianity in our society, hence it is cause for
celebration and Jubilee.